Balfour Beatty: orderbook rises to £12bn

Balfour Beatty has reported this morning that trading in the year so far “continues to be strong”. The group’s forward orderbook has risen by £400m and is now worth close on £12bn.

Balfour offers insights into its various sectors:

Building

Good progress continues, with particularly strong performance in Balfour Beatty Construction in the US and the UK, Mansell and Haden Building Management.

Engineering

Strong performance in the existing UK regional civils network, now augmented by Dean & Dyball, and also in Dubai where the turnover of Balfour’s joint venture looks like running to a figure of £700m in the current year.

Rail

Market prospects continue to t improve although the latest period has not benefited from one-off settlements of historic projects as was the case in the first months of last year.

Investments

Continued commitments to new PPP projects while existing concessions continue to perform at anticipated levels.

Balfour adds a reminded that on 15 May it issued 43m new shares, selling them for £186m.

The fresh pot will be spent on bolt-on acquisitions and organic growth opportunities.